Life

 The post I was going to do today was suppose to be light and airy...nothing heavy or sad.  However, life does come along and things happen that make you shake your head in wonder.  I've been blogging for 16yrs.  The posts have been a journal for me as they go into book form at the end of the year.  Many times I feel like I'm just repeating myself and events but hopefully someday they will be appreciated as my family can see how we've celebrated, changed, moved on and grown up.  Many of my posts with immediate family have also included others who joined us as boyfriends or girlfriends of my boys or my Grandkids.  Our Granddaughter, Summer, dated a young man through her high school years and also her college days.  Brett and Summer were together in many of our Christmas and other holiday gatherings.  They dated about 5 years, lived together after college and were engaged.  But as many young loves go, they decided to go their separate ways and ended the engagement.  Summer moved on and so did Brett. Brett married and became a Dad last year.   Our family still thought highly of him and missed him but we were happy for him and his wife.  Sadly last Wednesday Brett was killed in a car accident.  It shook us all up and especially Summer.  Even though they weren't together anymore he was such a big part of her growing up years in high school and college.  You just don't erase those feelings from your heart.  Our oldest, Jack, knew Brett since he was 11 and Brett was like a big brother to Summer's younger brothers.   I still have many photos of the two of them and fond memories of his fun personality and the good times he shared with us.  He was a wonderful golfer and many times he and my boys would hit golf balls in the back yard that would sail up into the Creepy Woods.  I still find some on my walks up there and even blogged about that too.  He was a hard worker who did well in college, had a good job and was recently promoted.  Why God takes somebody young like Brett at a time in life where he's just blossoming as a husband and Dad is a mystery that can't be solved in this life.  Seeing the table at the funeral home with all his trophies, photos, and memories laid out brought to my mind that life is short and none of us knows what the future will bring.  I told Jack that as I look at my photos of  him I just want to reach in and grab him and warn him.  But we can't do that. There's no going back.  All we can do is offer condolences, prayers, hugs, tears and hope that all will be as it should be in this life.  Rest in peace Brett. You will be missed.

It Takes A Village

 There are times when you/we need to call in the troops to help with a project.  That's why God invented kids.  They are great resources when they grow up.  When just littles they are mostly good for entertainment. Anyway, our mower needed some rehab.  There was a broken cable that holds up the deck and the blades needed to be replaced.  Jack had called 2 places that did that work but one was no longer in business and the other had some issues that made it not a good solution for the fixes needed.  Now, in the past it was a job Jack would do, but then he realized he needed another hand and not mine...thankfully.  So the boys have always been willing to lend that hand.  This time he realized he would need more than one hand and so Saturday our oldest, Jack, and my #3 son, Phil, came eagerly willing to help.  OK, so they came to help but I just threw in the eagerly part. 

Hello Mr. Mower deck.  Yuck. 

Hello Phil under the mower and hello Jack supervising.

Jack had his floor time too!  

Hello son Jack in the red plaid shirt.  Phil on one side, Jackie on the other.  Team work makes the dream work! 

Annabelle and I were a big help.  I took the pics and she just looked at me wondering why we weren't going on a nice walk instead.  So after some ups and downs and grunts and laughs the mower was done and ready for this year.  I'm the one who does the mowing and I did a test run yesterday and although the yard was a bit wet here and there it looks very nice and the mower worked perfectly.  Good job boys and big Jack!  I should have taken a yard pic but forgot in my excitement.  We had put together some vittles for the guys to take home to have a few meals when needed.  The saying that you need a village to raise kids is true. But when those sweet kiddos grow up and we grow older sometimes we need that village of  kids to lend that helping hand.  We are blessed to have such great boys/men that are always willing to do that.  Thanks guys!  

Totally Awesome!

 Hey, did you hear there was an eclipse happening on Monday?  The eclipse craze yesterday had everyone worrying about crowds that would result in no gasoline, food, toilet paper (of course) and places to stay. The weather had everyone on edge too.  What if it rained or was too cloudy to see anything?  Well, God gave us perfection here in Ashland, Ohio were we were excited to be in the path of totality with sunny skies.  Over the weekend there were activities going on in our downtown that I'm sure had store keepers and restaurant owners excited about sales.  Heck, even the Oscar Myer wiener mobile was here!  I didn't see it but it was here according to Facebook.  On Sunday I took Annabelle on a quick walk at the cemetery and on the way home I drove down main street. Shops and restaurants that are usually closed on Sundays were open and cars lined the street and parking lots.  Other than that I noticed no other crazy, crowed activity or problems.  Schools were closed Monday.  I found out they closed for really only one reason.  If schools were open and kids went outside during the eclipse and didn't wear protective eyewear than the schools could get in trouble or perhaps sued.  So keeping the littles at home put that problem to the family to deal with.  Jack closed  his office at noon and Jordan's company also closed early.  The hospital stayed open of course but surgeries were done by noon and I know employees were heading to the helicopter landing on the roof to observe the eclipse.  My sweet next door neighbor had sent out invites to the whole street to come to their place to watch and she provided sandwiches and drinks for everyone.  We all brought stuff to share too.  Nothing like a party on a Monday afternoon! When you see my pics to follow you'll understand why their yard was a good place to be.   At 2pm we trudged up their driveway and set up our chairs and gathered our special glasses.

It's hard to tell from the photos but they have a nice hill and view of Ashland and the horizon.

The crowd was gathering and anxiously waiting.

Jack in his fancy eclipse glasses.  Not like our paper ones!

This little guy was ready!  Soon the air had a definite change as the sun was slowly changing.  The temps were  in the 70's but soon it was at least 10de cooler.

Slowly getting darker.

As the sky got darker, our neighbor's horse and alpacas slowly started going toward the barn as if it were dusk soon to be night.

Darkness comes in the day.  I had never seen an eclipse and this was just so cool to watch the darkness descend, the air cool down, people's solar lights going on and the lights in town turn on.

See the lights in the distance?

Pitch black.  

My photos don't due this spectacular event justice.  I was in awe the whole time.  I wish I could really capture the total awesomeness of this.  I didn't think to take a video..silly me! I was just too caught up in what was happening around me.  Everyone there was just blown away by the whole thing.  The main phrase? This was so cool!  The same reaction from everyone I talked to at work today that saw it...it was so cool! 

Slowly the sun started to reappear.  The temps rose back up and the animals came out of the barn.  I know everyone that was with us on that hill felt the magic of the few minutes this lasted.  With all the technology of our time and how smart we think we are, it just takes a 3-4min act of God and nature and the heavens to make us believe in something much bigger and more wonderful than ourselves.  Maybe that's a bit over hyped but I'm so glad I was able to watch this.  I may never see another.  I guess we're suppose to have another in 20yrs.  I'll be 91 and perhaps will view it from a heavenly seat with no need for special glasses...no matter how fancy they may be! 

A Milestone

 I guess I should have posted this a few days ago but this momentous occasion happened right after I posted for Easter so I thought I would wait.  Sometimes life speeds by so fast that it gives you whiplash. I know posting this and going through all the pics for the post sure gave me a "back to the future" vibe.  As a Mom of 4 boys this occasion has happened 3 times before.  It's that magic moment when a child turns an age that makes you say: "Where has the time gone?"  Then you look at the photo albums and computer pics and realize time has gone where it always goes...on and on if you're lucky.   My youngest kiddo, Jordan, turned 40 on April 2nd.  Now all the boys are in their 40's. Whoa!  I clearly remember and even think that my 40th birthday wasn't that long ago! Ha!  How about 31yrs ago! Jordan was the last of the clan and has given us plenty of memories to look back on and also probably most of my gray hair when he was a teen!  Oh well, all's good now and here's just a few pics for my blog/journal.  Jordan doesn't read it so I probably can say anything I want and he wouldn't be the wiser!  Nah, just the good stuff here!  So here goes:

This is one of my favorite pics of Jordan and me because it shows how big this kiddo was!  He's only 4 months old here!  He weighed 10lbs, 8oz when he was born so it's no wonder he was that big.  Funny how he's the skinniest one in the family today.

Hanging with Dad...or maybe napping with Dad?

Oh those curls.  He keeps it short now so no curls...so sad.

He didn't mind my Halloween face..his was cuter!

He enjoyed Halloween too.

A boy and his dog...Ferris the Wonder dog!  Jordan and I picked Ferris out from the local shelter when Ferris was a 3mo old pup and Jordan was 3yrs old.  (Jordan isn't 3 in this pic!)  Ferris lived to be 15 and it was a super sad day for all of us when he went to the rainbow bridge, but especially Jordan.  The only other dog Jordan had after Ferris was Eddy the boxer.  I blogged a lot about Eddy over the years.  Jordan is a dog lover and I know one day he'll get another one. 

There's that day when all of a sudden the boy starts to be as tall as the parent!

Here's typical Jordan..he always can make us laugh! He has a very dry sense of humor and a quick wit. 

Again, typical Jordan! 

One of Jordan's senior pics.  They go from little to suddenly all grown up.

From here with  his brothers..

To here with his brothers.   It's been a wild and crazy 40yrs with this boy/man.  No matter the age, the youngest will always be the baby of the family.  Happy 40th Jordan!  

Don't Be Fooled!

 Good morning April!  Happy Easter Monday.  I'm not sure if that's a real name for today but I like it better than April Fool's Day.  I was going to post yesterday after all our Easter festivities were over but I was one tired puppy afterwards.   So I'll get to it today.  Just don't be fooled that it was different that the past ones.  We went to Church in the morning and then came home and started putting all final touches on the food prep.  I did a lot of it on Saturday so it was mostly warming things up.  Sounds easy.  Don't be fooled!  I managed to dump a pan full of cheesy potatoes in the oven.  I know some folks call those funeral potatoes and let me tell you, I was ready to kill them!  I had quite the mess to quickly clean up but with Jack's patient help while cleaning and calming (me down) we got it done.  Thankfully I had made 2 pans of those dang taters so all was not lost.  Everyone was coming at 2 and we had a couple of members not being able to make it do to illness and work issues.  I wish I had taken more pics of all the family but I did manage a few.  Our good friend Bryn joined us also.  Her hubby passed away in February and we were super happy to share the day with her.  Here are some of the star players:

I had never made a 7 layer salad before and it looked very pretty in the glass bowl and it was very tasty in our mouths!  Of course deviled eggs are always enjoyed.

I made 2 hams and they turned out really yummy also.  I like to make extra food because everyone always takes home a doggy bag! (in the following pic I had to smile at Jack's look.  Maybe he was hungry?)

Pasta salad, fruit salad, the darn taters, spanikopita (a nod to my Greek roots) and Evelyn's green fluff round out the menu.  Nobody went home hungry!  Desserts were divided up and sent home since they were still full from dinner.  Chocolate silk pie, coconut cream pie and of course the lamb cake that I make every year:

That lamb cake had me fooled for sure.  This was my third attempt at that baby.  The first 2 landed in the garbage. One just didn't turn out right and the other stuck to the mold.  I was ready to chuck it all but the 3rd time was the charm.  As my son said: "It just wouldn't be Easter without the lamb cake".  Not sure if he was fooling me or was serious.  No matter. Done and done!  After dinner we headed outside for the Easter egg hunt.  We only had one little kiddo (Aria) to hunt in the traditional way.

She had fun on her hunt.  But then I had the adults do a hunt also.  No fooling!  They were good sports about it.  They only had to find 6 eggs a piece and each egg was worth a lottery ticket. Plus candy inside the egg! 

Phil and Addy Rae

Our Lexi that will graduate this year...time has flown!

The rest of the adults with their little baskets hunting made me laugh. 

Cameron finding some up high!  He was the first one to find all 6 of his eggs.  We had 2 teams and Evelyn came in first in her group.  They got first pics of the lottery tickets.  I wish I could say someone or everyone won big but I think $5 was the most anyone got.  Oh well, the fun is in the hunt! We had beautiful weather.  It was almost 60de and sunny.  So perfect!  We had a lovely day with the family and then all was quiet as the gang trooped home.  As I mentioned I was a bit tired but even with some pitfalls and spills, it was a good Easter.  I'll close with a pic that I don't think was taken on Easter since the trees are in full leaf but it reminds me of an Easter Sunday shot!  My youngest brother, Rick, isn't in the pic because I don't think he was born yet. I love that Midge has her arm around Jim..so sweet.  I hope everyone has a wonderful start of April and no pranks were too harsh today!  Mother Nature is pulling some pranks with Spring snowfalls.  We're in for rain and then one day with some snow chances...No fooling!